Special Coverage

Trainer also wants to ride

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Gennadi Dorochenko would like to change one thing about racing in California.

He would like to see the state allow individuals to hold both a jockey's license and a trainer's license.

If that were the case, not only would he be listed as the trainer of Satin Dolly in Thursday's Bay Meadows' co-feature, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies in for a $25,000 claiming tag, but he would also be her rider.

Dorochenko, who took a string of horses back East for the summer, rode the filly four times at Delaware this summer. In Delaware, a person can be both a jockey and a trainer.

"I don't know why California doesn't change the law," Dorochenko said. "They do it in the East, and look at harness horses."

Many trainers still exercise horses in the morning to learn more about them.

Dorochenko appreciates the opportunity to ride his horses in a race. He said he gets a better feel for them and what they may need in training, and he gives them the kind of ride that they need.

"If I [ride] my horse, I know exactly what to do," he said.

"Sometimes horses have a funny action, and jockeys that don't know them are scared of them."

Dorochenko stables his horses at Golden Gate Fields, which is near his home in El Sobrante. He has 12 horses stabled at Golden Gate Fields with five others out of training.

Ultimately, Dorochenko decided to return home. Delaware's signal isn't available in northern California, so Dorochenko said his owners couldn't watch their horses run.

Dorochenko faces the problems all small operations do with workers' comp rates and stringent state regulations.

There are competitive problems as well.

"Lots of times, the big barns will have horses, and you are stuck with no riders," he said. "It is a big problem."

Dorochenko is still looking for his first win since returning home but is optimistic things will get better.

* A free Breeders' Cup seminar will be held at the Sports Bar at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Free copies of Daily Racing Form's Breeders' Cup advance edition, featuring past performances, charts, European coverage, analysis of key races, and a look at Arlington Park, will be given to attendees.